UPC Agrees to Acquire EWT/TSS
As Fallback Strategy in Germany

By

James M. Dorsey Special to The Wall Street Journal

Updated April 4, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET

AMSTERDAM -- United Pan-Europe Communications NV agreed to buy German broadband company EWT/TSS for 935 million euros ($893.9 million), in a bid to gain market share in Germany, the world's third-largest cable market.

UPC, the European cable operator unit of Denver-based UnitedGlobalCom Inc., would pay 237 million euros in cash and the remaining 698 million euros in stock of its UPC Germany GmbH unit, said UPC spokeswoman Henrietta Hirst. The deal gives the Stritzl family, which runs EWT/TSS, a 49% stake in UPC Germany,...